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Oilers trade Andrew Cogliano to the Ducks for Anaheim’s 2013 second round pick

Braden Holtby, Andrew Cogliano

Washington Capitals’ goalie Braden Holtby (70) looks and deflects a shot by Edmonton Oilers’ Andrew Cogliano (13) during second period of an NHL hockey game in Washington, Wednesday, March 9, 2011. Capitals won 5-0. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

AP

Aside from trading spare parts (acquiring Kurtis Foster for Andy Sutton) and losing a valuable defensive forward to retirement, the Anaheim Ducks haven’t been very busy in this off-season. Some probably worry that they haven’t been proactive regarding their precarious goaltending situation considering the questionable health of netminder Jonas Hiller.

It looks like they’ve made an effort to cover the “speedy depth center” gap left behind by Todd Marchant’s retirement, though. The Ducks traded their 2013 second round pick to the Edmonton Oilers for Andrew Cogliano today.

Cogliano shares at least two traits with Marchant: he skates like the wind and he’s a former forward of the Oilers organization. That being said, there are significant differences between the two. With Marchant, there was the feeling that he maxed out just about every ounce of his ability. Marchant was also a reliable defensive forward who lead all forwards in total penalty kill time in 2010-11. Conversely, Cogliano seems like he’s associated with wasted talent or wildly incorrect expectations. (He’s also known in certain segments of the hockey blogosphere for being notoriously weak in the faceoff circle. The impact of such a deficit is tough to quantify, but it’s a flaw that isn’t very promising for a guy who will probably be expected to kill penalties.)

Maybe a change of scenery - and the possibility of getting the occasional whiff of playing time with one of Anaheim’s elite power forwards - might do Cogliano some good. It’s tough to argue with the sentiment that the Oilers are right to cut bait with the fast but ineffective forward, especially with the solid return that could come from that 2013 second rounder.

The Ducks still need to sign the restricted free agent to a new contract, though. Cogliano is set for salary arbitration on July 21, so the penny-pinching Ducks might want to avoid that process since he might get a decent amount of change being that he hit the 45-point mark once and scored a decent 35 points in 2010-11.

There’s a general sense of negativity about Cogliano from the Edmonton/stat guys side, but are any Ducks fans excited or are any fans of Anaheim’s biggest rivals a little nervous about this swap? Let us know in the comments.